Volunteer: The winner

Photo by JESSE KRAMER
Eric “Rick” Settelen, a volunteer at Ashtabula County Medical Center, cheers up a patient with company and conversation.

By CHRISTINE GORDILLO

Eric "Rick" Settelen Ashtabula County Medical Center Looking to improve a speech impairment following brain surgery, Rick Settelen thought volunteering in a place where he was forced to talk with people would help him regain his speech skills. At the Ashtabula County Medical Center's skilled nursing unit he found not only his words, but a home away from home. When Mr. Settelen started out in the skilled nursing unit of Ashtabula County Medical Center in 2001, he was only to come in three or four hours a week. Within days, he asked if he could volunteer five or six hours a day. Before he knew it, he was there eight hours a day, five days a week. “I love my job and being at the hospital,” Mr. Settelen said. Volunteer supervisor Sandy Sposito said when he's around, everyone feels better. Mr. Settelen has “a gentle, quiet touch that brings a sense of healing to all of us,” Ms. Sposito said. She said Mr. Settelen's presence provides a “ripple effect” of positive energy that flows through the patients to the staff and anyone visiting the floor. The 64-year-old Mr. Settelen retains his indomitable and infectious spirit despite a life marked with tragedy and trials. When Mr. Settelen was 5, he was in a car crash that killed his mother and brother. He said the severe injuries he sustained left him with partial paralysis and epileptic seizures that sometimes numbered nearly 100 a month. In 2000, he underwent a partial hemispherectomy where a portion of his brain was removed to help control the seizures. The surgery eventually restored his quality of life, but it left him speech- impaired and reliant on a cane or wheelchair most of the time. Mr. Settelen said his troubles make it easy for him to relate to the patients in the unit, who average 75 years old. “I'm disabled, so I know what it's like to be laid up,” he said. Mr. Settelen spends his days chatting with patients he knows are hurting and “tells them funny stories” or gives them inspirational readings. Funny thing is, he doesn't realize that his qualities of compassion and sacrifice serve as their own inspiration to those around him, Ms. Sposito said. “He's a powerful testimony to the volunteer spirit,” she said.